Author Archives: mjr

SOPA: Lash Out is better than Black Out

2012-01-18 by mjr

Once again, lawmakers are considering a stupid protectionist measure and this time it’s the US, so it has some effects outside the US too. Once again, some websites have taken themselves offline and caused great inconvenience to their supporters. This … Continue reading →

Posted in SPI | 6 Comments

Growing Your Co-operative, Bristol

2011-11-14 by mjr

Last Friday (11 November 2011), I was at the Cooperatives-SW annual conference at the Cube Cinema in Bristol, titled “Growing Your Co-operative” and sponsored by the Co-operative Membership South and West. It was another sold-out event, featuring headline talks from … Continue reading →

Posted in Cooperatives | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

RISE Faces Demutualisation Threat at EGM

2011-10-27 by mjr

The RISE co-op is the sole shareholder in the Social Enterprise Mark CIC and its members have been called to an Extraordinary General Meeting during the lunch break of next Tuesday’s “Knowing and Growing” conference at UWE Bristol. The RISE … Continue reading →

Posted in Cooperatives | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Stand up for your freedom to install free software

2011-10-24 by mjr

It’s been busy at our co-op but I’m never too busy to support calls for the freedom to install debian (or any other Free and Open Source Software Operating System) so I’ve signed the FSF-led public statement on so-called “Secure … Continue reading →

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Help Bring KohaCon to Edinburgh

2011-09-28 by mjr

Our co-op has put in a bid to bring KohaCon to Edinburgh in 2012. Edinburgh is a great Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) conference city, with libraries of national and international importance, a huge choice of hotels, restaurants and … Continue reading →

Posted in Koha | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Six of the Best Podcasts?

2011-09-20 by mjr

I’m listening to quite a few podcasts recently. Here are my current favourites: Cyberunions which covers the tech/work crossover space and is appearing as Ogg near the start of most weeks. I reviewed an earlier episode and it’s kept on … Continue reading →

Posted in GNU/Linux | 13 Comments

Tour of Britain: Cheddar Gorge-ous

2011-09-17 by mjr

So tired, but so happy. Well worth it as a day out. Yesterday I went to the Tour of Britain as it passed through Cheddar Gorge. It was a fairly social trip, riding along with two from Bristol on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Cooperatives | 2 Comments

Help with co-op development? Don’t ask here

2011-09-09 by mjr

The blog is back. We’ve moved it to our new blog hosting (please contact us if you’d like us to host your blog – or if you spot a problem with our blog), so the adverts are gone and I’m … Continue reading →

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Back to Work

2011-08-12 by mjr

This is my first week back after two weeks off (I aim for three complete weeks off a year). Even if I had reached InboxZero (and ToDoZero and so on…), there was two weeks of requests, reports and rubbish piled … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Training and Information | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Software in the Public Interest August 2011 – and election results

2011-08-10 by mjr

The SPI election results have been declared. Jimmy Kaplowitz, Clint Adams and Robert Brockway were elected to the SPI board. There were 75 voters, which is 16% turnout, up from the 13% in the last contested election, in 2009. The … Continue reading →

Posted in SPI | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment